This bank was closed today, and the sign on the door on Sept. 28 explained why.
Since 2021, the second Monday in October has not been Columbus Day in Oregon. Instead it has been Indigenous Peoples Day.
But for those of us not paying attention to cultural upheavals, the new designation might still have come as a surprise when closure signs appeared on some bank doors, like at the downtown Albany branch of Umpqua Bank.
As far as the state government is concerned, this is not a legal holiday in Oregon. Instead it is one of a long list of commemorative days listed in the Oregon statutes.
The list really is very long. You can look it up in Chapter 187 of the Oregon Revised Statutes here. Among others, it includes Tom McCall Day (March 22), Oregon Statehood Day (Feb. 14), Thomas Paine Day (Jan. 29), and Cherry Blossom Day (third Sunday in March).
This day remains, however, the federal holiday of Columbus Day, designated as such in the 1930s and confirmed in 1968 when Congress moved it to the second Monday in October. Even President Biden recognized it when he issued a Columbus Day proclamation in 2021.
Federal workers get the day off. If they worked this Oct. 9, they qualified for holiday pay.
Columbus has long been a controversial figure because of all the wrong done, after 1492, to the people who lived on this continent, which had been discovered by some of their distant ancestors more than 20,000 years ago.
But it’s impossible to deny the historic significance of what this explorer accomplished 531 years ago. So we can safely keep calling it Columbus Day, as the federal government does.
As for the indigenous people of the Americas and their ancestors, let’s have an actual federal holiday honoring them. (hh)
Ah, the rough and tumble of identity politics.
The Knights of Columbus effectively lobbied for 2 significant cultural changes in the 20th century:
1) Columbus Day observance- enacted in President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 2nd term (during a time of labor unrest, low approval ratings); but the first Columbus Day promulgation was in 1892 by President Benjamin Harrison to mourn 11 Italian Americans murdered in one of America’s largest mass lynchings.
2) Inserting, ‘Under God’ into the Pledge of Allegiance during President Dwight Eisenhower’s first term, ostensibly as a ‘bulwark against communism’ during the Second Red Scare.
Conflating Italian American heritage with Catholicism and pitting both against Indigenous culture is especially nettlesome. Mr. Hering’s recommendation of a different day/Federal Holiday merits consideration.
In 1492, those indigenous to North America discovered the brutal greed of gold-hungry Europeans. What followed was the Grandest Theft ever foisted on those who were already living here. Most of the theft and attempted genocide was carried out by Roman Catholics under the auspices of a Catholic King and Queen of Spain. As you can imagine, the locals were displeased. Unfortunately, local displeasure was quickly crushed as the Catholic Gold thieves purposely spread disease and fear. It seems bizarre and twisted that these events are celebrated to this day under the ruse of honoring a “Great Explorer, Columbus.
That’s nothing. Look at what the British did (Church of England) did to our continent. For God’s sake, it took us 87 years to end the slavery they had imposed on us for 154 years! All done by White Guys!
I think that if you asked an American Native they didn’t need “discovering”. They knew where they’ve been for thousands of years.. They probably wished they’d pulled back the “Wecome…Ya’ll Come” front door mat years ago. An historical fact…Columbus never was any where near Manhattan! He “discovered” the Caribbean.
GET OVER IT. No identity politics will ever change the fact that Columbus sailed West to another continent and changed the world. He was one of many skilled sailors/explorers
that started international trade and social engagement. The cultural change activists smugly cast their scorn while being the same as all others before them. Their ignorance
is exposed.
Why is it “identity politics” when anyone questions the Euro-White racism and genocide? Are we simply to ignore the grim results of Columbus’ “discovery.” The comment seems to simply brush away the truth simply so that we can pretend that Columbus was merely a “brave explorer,” even though he was sanctioned by the Catholic rulers of Spain to “go get the gold and don’t worry about the fallout.” The easy objection to celebration of an invader, a genocidal murderer and a yet another Catholic who failed to live up to the words Jesus allegedly spoke cannot be glossed over as mere identity politics.
If you want to enlighten yourself simply Google Acoma Pueblo or Sky City in New Mexico. Read what is there or better still go there and walk that Pueblo. Listen to the people who live there on the oldest continuously occupied Pueblo in N. America.
My wife and I visited there in the mid 1990’s and were awed at the narration given by the guide who led the group.